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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23805307">Reverie and Reasoning</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroundu/pseuds/aroundu'>aroundu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Drabble, Hinata is the one pining and receiving their advice, M/M, Pining, Ritsuizu Established Relationship, love advice, rated T because izumi says bad words</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 00:42:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,128</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23805307</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroundu/pseuds/aroundu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ritsu smiled sweetly at Hinata. “When you deal with emotionally dense people, you can’t rely on little hints for them to pick up because sometimes they are too stupid to realize you’re flirting. Sometimes for an entire year they won’t realize, and that’s a long time to pine, Hinata-kun.” An unspoken ‘trust me’ was left hanging in the air.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aoi Hinata/Suou Tsukasa, Sakuma Ritsu/Sena Izumi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>43</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Reverie and Reasoning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“No, Suu-chan isn’t here.”</p><p>Hinata tries not to deflate at the words, and before a frown can work itself onto his face, Hinata forces a sheepish smile to appear instead.</p><p>“Oh? I thought I’d be in time to catch him.” He runs a hand through his hair, tugging through knots that had worked themselves in during the day. </p><p>It was late afternoon now, late enough that some would call it the evening, but since it was summer and the sun wouldn’t dip below the horizon for another few hours, Hinata wouldn’t call it evening. Not with the sunlight coming through the windows being the only thing illuminating the practice room and still making it bright enough as if the overhead electric lights were on.</p><p>He’d never go as far to call himself a stalker, but if Hinata knew what time that Knights’ practice ended just so he could conveniently run into Tsukasa, then maybe he was just a bit more adept at observation than the average person.</p><p>Ritsu was the only one in the room though. Hinata knew his reputation for sleeping, but somehow the eyes that normally seemed so droopy were alert and squinting at Hinata. Looking him over. Analyzing him.</p><p>“He had to leave early for some family business,” Ritsu said, stifling a yawn behind the palm of his hand. “So our practice got to end early too. But why are you looking for him? You’re not the Yuuta-kun in his class, so you can’t be asking for notes.”</p><p>Hinata squeezed the strap of his backpack, ignoring how it felt like Ritsu’s eyes were seeing right through him and could see the pamphlet Hinata had tucked away into his bag. “Hehe, no, I’m not Yuuta-kun~ Thanks for telling the difference. He gets real upset about that sort of thing.” He left it off there. He couldn’t trust any other words from his mouth that wouldn’t be discerned as lies in the face of his senior.</p><p>“What’s going on here?”</p><p>Hinata turned to the opened door to be met with Izumi Sena glaring- is he actually glaring? Or is that just his face? Hinata gets the feeling asking is a bad idea- at the scene. </p><p>Ritsu’s blank face twists into a smile. “Oh, Secchan~” he says as he strolls over to Izumi’s side. “We have a problem.”</p><p>“What is it?- Hey!” Izumi’s words stop when Ritsu throws his arms over Izumi’s shoulders and all but drapes himself over the other boy. “Kuma-kun, you piece of shit. You have legs. Use them.”</p><p>“Hmm. No, I don’t think I will.” Ritsu spends another moment feigning leg weakness and then he’s standing upright, looking back at Hinata. “Besides, we have to deal with this troublesome situation.”</p><p>Hinata had enough common sense to realize he was the problem Ritsu was talking about, but Hinata was nothing else if an evasive liar, so he widened his eyes and raised his eyebrows in concern. “Problem? The big bad unit Knights has a problem?” He gasped. “Can I help? Of course, for a price~”</p><p>Ritsu continued on as if Hinata had never spoken, “I think little Suu-chan has a suitor.”</p><p>Uh oh.</p><p>Ohhh no.</p><p>It was a fool’s errand to try and convince himself that the fear spilling through Hinata’s bloodstream was because of the presence of two objectively scary upperclassmen staring at him like the inconsequential kid he was being a bother. No, Hinata felt an adrenaline rush and desire to run far away from this room, this building, maybe even the country, because within minutes he’s been found out for his intentions.</p><p>Okay, so the evasive liar tactic failed. Plan B.</p><p>“Are you the same Sena-senpai that my brother thinks is a super scary guy that is going to beat him up? I guess you’re glaring is pretty ugly, like a monster from a horror story.”</p><p>Rile them up as a distraction.</p><p>Izumi’s mouth dropped open and his nose scrunched up in disgust, and when Ritsu snorted, he pushed the boy’s head away from himself.</p><p>“All you first-years are such brats. Do you guys ever shut up? Jesus, I swear if I had an ounce of emotional instability, I really would beat you all up.” </p><p>“You have many ounces of emotional instability, Secchan.” Ritsu ducked under Izumi’s arms and slid closer to once again have his arms around him. “You’re ignoring the important thing here.”</p><p>“I’m about to start ignoring you if you don’t get off of me.” Izumi made no attempt to push Ritsu away this time, instead looking at Hinata with narrowed eyebrows. “You seriously have a thing for that shitty brat?”</p><p>Hinata sighed. Ritsu was going to keep this conversation on track no matter what playful, overexaggerated words Hinata would spin out. This was an awkward conversation to have, one he didn’t even speak about with Yuuta yet because he knew he’d flub over his words and act just as a little kid dealing with their elementary school crush would. Even worse, he was being confronted by people he didn’t even know too well to talk about it.</p><p>But they were close with Tsukasa, so their words were bound to be important.</p><p>“Tsukasa-kun is a good friend. Maybe I like showing him the nice aspects of commoner life, and sometimes those outings can maybe be deemed something like dates. It’s just coincidental that I choose things that make him smile real wide and make him happy for days after!” Hinata crossed his arms, fingers digging into his skin while he spoke. He wouldn’t go as far to say he felt so uncomfortable that his skin was crawling, but to say there wasn’t the feeling of the room being too small and just a tiny bit smothering.</p><p>“How annoying,” Izumi huffed and walked closer to Hinata, dragging Ritsu along with him. “You’re the reason that Kasa-kun keeps messing up during practice. You know that this week-”</p><p>Ritsu shoved a hand over Izumi’s mouth and smiled with faux innocence at Hinata. “When you deal with emotionally dense people, you can’t rely on little hints for them to pick up because sometimes they are too stupid to realize you’re flirting. Sometimes for an entire year they won’t realize, and that’s a long time to pine, Hinata-kun.” An unspoken <em> ‘trust me’ </em> was left hanging in the air, and Izumi rolled his eyes as he tore Ritsu’s hand away from his face.</p><p>Hinata bit his lip and looked at the ground. He knows he has to do that; he has to confess some degree of feelings to Tsukasa, and really, Hinata has been meaning to do that. There’s just one problem.</p><p>“I can’t be upfront with him even if I wanted to because he’s been avoiding me.”</p><p>He doesn’t know why, and the when is a bit hazy and unclear, but Hinata thinks it started about a week ago after they went to the arcade together. Flashing lights, loud sounds from games, it was exactly the type of place that Hinata would pick out and drag his friends to, so imagine how fast his heart beat when <em> Tsukasa </em> was the one to propose the idea to hang out there. He bought way too many coins and gave no care to the ones that spilled as he struggled to carry them over to Hinata, and Hinata remembered when Tsukasa stumbled and fell into him how his breath left him and his skin felt so hot like Tsukasa burned him.</p><p>Everything felt like it went right that day. Hinata led Tsukasa around the arcade like it was his own home; he showed him the best games for getting tickets, the ones that were the most fun, and then finally he ushered Tsukasa to the claw machines. Hinata’s luck was always 50/50 with them, but if he could win a prize then Tsukasa would remember this day forever. </p><p>And Hinata did win a prize- a little stuffed animal alpaca that he instantly shoved into Tsukasa’s arms proclaiming it as a gift. Hinata felt as light as air in spring and giddy like a kid who successfully stole from the cookie jar, and the stuttered thanks from a red-cheeked Tsukasa was all too irresistible. He’s always been told he is invading the personal boundaries of those around him, so when it came to Tsukasa he tried hard to hold it back and be a respectable person that wouldn’t throw his arms around Tsukasa every chance he got, because Tsukasa was proper and he’d want Hinata to act sensible. Cups of tokens neglected, Hinata couldn’t help but pull Tsukasa into a crushing hug, giggling and spinning him around, infecting the air with his joyful glee.</p><p>Tsukasa had laughed then and let himself be pulled along with Hinata’s enthusiasm with a smile so big it crinkled his eyes, so he figured everything was okay- hell, <em> better </em> than okay, like they were making some progress towards sitting in a tree. But then the next day, Tsukasa took forever to respond to his texts, and when he did they were just single words and phrases. Hinata told himself that he was an heir so maybe he was busy that day with whatever it was the heir to a big rich family did. Then the following days, Tsukasa dodged him at lunch and after school just like he’d been dodging his texts.</p><p>It’s been a week. Only seven days, but it felt like forever, and Hinata hadn’t gotten a word of explanation from the other boy.</p><p>Izumi’s sigh brought Hinata out of his pity party. “And that would explain why he’s been doing even worse this week. What? Did you two fight or something? Though, that hot-headed brat wouldn’t be one to avoid a fight for so long.”</p><p>“We didn’t fight! I really don’t know what happened, and that’s why I was trying to find him.” Hinata rolled his shoulders, trying to get the tension out of them. He was supposed to be an acrobat but his body felt impossibly wound up right now.</p><p>“Clearly, you did. Why else would he... avoid... you….. Kuma-kun, use your words and stop that.” </p><p>Ritsu removed his hand from messing up the gentle curls of Izumi’s hair. “You shouldn’t take love advice from Secchan, it’s not his field. Truthfully, Secchan’s been such a bad influence on sweet little Suu-chan. He’s so quick to fight these days, surely a bad learned behavior from Secchan’s prissy mouth.”</p><p>Hinata’s mouth hardened into a line and he wanted to speak up and ask ‘<em>hey, what’s the point in me being here while I’m pretty sure you’re flirting with Sena-senpai right this second? </em>’ but Ritsu stood away from Izumi and took a step towards Hinata, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“Listen, Suu-chan is dense and oblivious to social stuff, but when he picks up on something he has to think about it like it’s some super complicated math problem with lots of numbers and equations to go through. He’s trying to solve it right now, so let him have his space and if he isn’t at your feet professing his love in a few days, then I’ll get Secchan to kick his ass.”</p><p>Hinata took a moment to let Ritsu’s words circle through his brain, each breath he took he digested them. Tsukasa didn’t hate him; he needed time to work through his feelings. He was a bit peeved that Tsukasa hadn’t vocalized any sort of warning and opted to ghost him, but okay, Hinata’s ghosted people before so he couldn’t start being a hypocrite now.</p><p>After a few more seconds of silence, Hinata blinked and nodded at Ritsu.</p><p>“Yeah, okay. That makes sense. Thank you, Ritsu-senpai. Y’know, you’re really good at knowing what’s going on in people’s heads and giving advice, just like your brother. I guess it’s a Sakuma trait?”</p><p>Izumi groaned, “Oh, don’t mention his brother or he’ll be pissy for the rest of the day.”</p><p>“Disgusting bug.” Ritsu dropped his hand from Hinata’s shoulder with a sour face and returned to Izumi’s side. “Ugh, let’s go, Secchan. I need a nap now, so carry me.”</p><p>“Absolutely not. We have dinner reservations that we’re going to be late to if you don’t pick up the pace.”</p><p>The two continued to bicker as they left the room, and even when their voices were long-gone, Hinata grinned at it. If the two of them, who seemed to pick fights so much, could work it out together and be happy, then Hinata would remain patient for Tsukasa forever if he needed it.</p><p>Still, the pamphlet of the new ice cream shop that opened downtown felt heavy in his backpack, but Hinata assured himself that when Tsukasa was ready, it’d be the first place they’d go.</p><p>On their first date.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this is for a prompt that i got on twitter and i loved it so much but halfway through writing this i realized i was duped into writing ritsuizu under the pretense of hinakasa so well played anon<br/></p></blockquote></div></div>
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